UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 2005

the instrument as a whole of The Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 2005

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 2005.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
9 November 2005
In force from
6 April 2006
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations replace the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/2885) (“the 1992 Regulations”) to provide for the preparation of safety cases for offshore installations and for the notification of specified activities to the Health and Safety Executive (“the Executive”). The 1992 Regulations implemented Article 3(2) of Council Directive 92/91/EEC (O.J. No. L348, 28.11.92, p.9) concerning the minimum requirements for improving the safety and health protection of workers in the mineral-extracting industries through drilling. These Regulations continue to provide for the implementation of this provision in Great Britain. A safety case is defined in the Regulations as a document containing specified information relating to the management of health and safety and the control of major accident hazards and containing the particulars specified in the Schedule referred to in the provision of the Regulations under which it is prepared (regulations 2(2) and 12). The Regulations— require a licensee to ensure that any operator he appoints is capable of carrying out his functions and discharging his duties satisfactorily (regulation 5); require an operator to prepare and send to the Executive a design notification for a production installation which is to be established (regulation 6(1)) and a relocation notification for a production installation that is to be moved to a new location (regulation 6(2)); prohibit the operation of a production installation unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 7 and Schedule 2); prohibit the movement of a non-production installation in relevant waters (as defined in regulation 2(1)) with a view to its being operated there unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 8 and Schedule 3); require a design notification to be sent to the Executive in respect of the conversion of a non-production installation to a production installation (regulation 9(1)) and prohibit the operation of a converted installation unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 9(5)); prohibit the engagement of an installation in a combined operation with another unless a notification has been sent to the Executive (regulation 10 and Schedule 4); prohibit the dismantling of a fixed installation unless a revised safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 11 and Schedule 5); require a safety case to be reviewed when directed by the Executive and at intervals of 5 years (regulation 13); require a safety case to be revised when appropriate and when directed by the Executive (regulation 14); grant to the Executive powers in respect of safety cases and related documents (regulation 15); require any procedures or arrangements in safety cases to be followed and provide for specified defences for contravention of the requirement (regulation 16); prohibit the commencement of a well operation unless a notification has been sent to the Executive (regulation 17); impose requirements with respect to the making and keeping of documents (regulation 18); impose requirements with respect to the creation, revision and continuing effect of a verification scheme in respect of an installation and provide a defence for contravention of the requirements (regulations 19 to 22); provide for the granting of exemptions from the Regulations by the Executive (regulation 23); provide for an appeal to the Secretary of State against certain decisions of the Executive (regulation 24); contain transitional provisions in respect of activities in existence or commenced within a specified time of the coming into force of the Regulations (regulation 27). A copy of the regulatory impact assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source